MANILA, Philippines - The Climate Change Commission (CCC) has signed an agreement with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the Department of Education (DepEd) and UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines to use culture and the arts as an effective tool for public information.
In a two-page memorandum of agreement (MOA), the parties agreed on a “multimedia cultural communications framework action plan on climate change” to encourage the public to set targets for reduction of carbon footprints using the cultural media.
Climate Change Secretary Heherson Alvarez said the MOA, signed during the recent observance of World Environment Day in Batangas City, seeks to “develop and promote broadcasting and different disciplines in the arts and creative industry in establishing standards in environmental management.”
It also urges the public “to set quantifiable targets for a reduction in our own carbon footprint” or the measure of how the Earth is polluted with greenhouse gas emissions.
Through cultural media, Alvarez said the commission wants to inform and educate Filipinos in different age groups on the need to address climate change.
“The cultural arts could help inform all Filipinos on what could be their contribution to avert climate change and its impacts of drought and excessive rainfall,” he said.
Alvarez said the inter-sectoral interdisciplinary approach of the commission aims to tap cultural media such as “performance, literary and visual arts, cinema, and indigenous rituals and traditions” to educate people on climate change.
Moreover, the agreement binds the parties to organize a workshop to “craft a roadmap and comprehensive action plan to pursue the successful implementation of the intents of the framework plan for climate change mitigation and adaptation to promote a culture of peace and sustainable development.”
Alvarez signed the agreement with DepEd Undersecretary Vilma Labrador, who also chairs the NCCA; Preciosa Soliven, secretary-general of the UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines; and Undersecretary Cecile Guidote-Alvarez of the UNESCO-International Theater Institute Philippine Center.
The MOA signing, witnessed by Batangas Gov. Vilma Santos-Recto and Quezon City councilor and Climate Change Ambassador Alfred Vargas, was also signed by DepEd Region 4-A director Dr. Paraluman Giron and National Council for Children’s Television director Frank Rivera.